Developer: Ensemble Studios Platform: PC Release Year: 1997
Basic Plot
None that I can remember, although the setting was great empires from history doing battle.
Gameplay
Age of Empires is a real time strategy game. The game involves picking an ancient empire and battling against others in a contest to destroy each other's civilization.
During the game you could research better and more powerful technology. This was defined by reaching new "ages" as you played. These ages included the:
Stone Age
Tool Age
Bronze Age
Iron Age
Players started with a handful of workers and ascended to control an Iron Age empire and destroy their opponents. There were 12 empires to choose from and these were divided into four architectural groups, but ultimately each empire had similar units.
Resources were gathered to fund your empire and these included stone, wood, gold, and food. You spend your resources researching new technology, building soldiers to engage your enemy, and also structures and buildings which could help either by providing defence (walls, towers) or technology/economy.
The game included four single player campaigns which set the player several challenges to complete, as well as "Random" battles against AI opponents. There was also extensive multiplayer support for battling your friends.
The game came with a Scenario Builder, and players around the world created maps and scenarios to share.
Positives
The use of "ages" was unique and interesting. I can see where the game was trying to go; treading the line between Civilization and Warcraft. It was a fairly well balanced and epic real time strategy.
Negatives
One of the major pitfalls of the game is the lack of variety between the empires you choose to play as. Unlike StarCraft or even Command and Conquer the empire choice you made was largely meaningless becauseyou had the same selection of units to pick from (perhaps with some minor changes).
I found the game less precise and satisfying than other games in the same genre.
This game wasn't bad actually. But since every single aspect of it got improved in aoe2, so I don't see any reason to play this game today. Also I negatively remember the singlepayer campaigns, which imho were badly designed.
First game i ever played <3 Looked a lot more beautiful in my memories but it was the esthetic that strucked me (despite the fight I know feel that the historical aspects were taken apart for that). And god about mechanics that was demanding to produce anything (no queue for awful players like I was). Then aoe2 <3 The funny thing is that those were my first 2games and I only jumped with sc2 in competitive rts.
good game but strategically and micro wise the aoe series lacked quite a bit. AoE2 was quite good for it's time and thematically one of the best rts'es ever still. Economy management was quite fun, too bad the fighting was a little too bland though
Yeah Age of Empires was my first competitive computer game. Good times good times... I remember getting raped by my friend that was from Australia. I hated how the game became a chosen nut hugging fest. A lot of the games I saw people hosting said "Chosen war". Then they spam those OP legions all day that are as cheap as marines/vultures in BW.
Oh yeah and those phalanx soldiers were slow as shit. They had power, but they moved like turtles. Legions were like speedlings on crack, cheap, and annoying as fuck.
I sucked so much at AoE lol. I tried to get lessons from people, but I had crappy macro.
*EDIT*
Blog isn't complete without the original AoE video intro. I watched it maybe a hundred times back in the day haha...
Ha, I remember playing this game as a kid. The campaigns were too hard for me though. And yeah, I was quick to switch over and donate hundreds of hours to AoE 2 and Age of Mythology (which will always have a special place in my heart).
Aoe is still the most popular game in my country and China. Almost every college student knows how to play it, and there are many Aoe teams throughout the country
This game is a bit random compares to Starcraft and Warcraft, but its randomness does bring a ton of fun, especially when playing 4-4 random map (although 1v1 is even more coin-flippy than PvP in SC2 lol ^^)
My only problem with the AoE series is that I would stop playing an RTS and begin playing SimCity: Medieval Edition; to build up and tech in missions, make stuff look pretty, etc.
I installed this a while ago to relive the glory days. Unfortunately the AI is REALLY bad. I remember getting crushed by the AI when I was a stupid little kid. Now when I play on hardest the AI is completely lethargic and useless.
On October 15 2012 12:56 quannguyen wrote: Aoe is still the most popular game in my country and China. Almost every college student knows how to play it, and there are many Aoe teams throughout the country
This game is a bit random compares to Starcraft and Warcraft, but its randomness does bring a ton of fun, especially when playing 4-4 random map (although 1v1 is even more coin-flippy than PvP in SC2 lol ^^)
I remember seeing the other day a vietnamese aoe 1 tournament with 5k viewers on twitch
EPT![[image loading]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YLv9ZYWgEjU/TvKqxADOIWI/AAAAAAAAAw8/dkaNVYNhyRM/s320/Aoe_fuchs.png)
![[image loading]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pA_Gc_jPQqQ/TvKq1uRgMSI/AAAAAAAAAxI/H5NWwfY3h3w/s320/age_of_empires_microsoft_screenshot_3.png)
![[image loading]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KuIeVlT23rQ/TvKq6QIOgJI/AAAAAAAAAxU/-mpyGnvd6Vs/s320/aoe0013yf2.jpg)
